• @Lophostemon@aussie.zone
    link
    fedilink
    61 year ago

    The original game as invented by bored semi-drunk Scots was, I’m sure, a good laugh several hundred years ago with wee sticks and a random round thing.

    The modern game and all its hideous capitalist/ classist cultural connotations is fucked.

  • @Krotz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    21 year ago

    Well, I recently learned of the existence of Excel competitions, so I’m not sure about the ‘most boring’ part.

  • @Blackmist@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    11 year ago

    The golf course near me has spent the last month about a foot underwater.

    I have never been so smug. I hope it’s ruined.

  • So… I actually really like golf. I think it’s fun. Haven’t played in over a decade, but I look back on my memories playing pretty fondly.

    That said, I have zero issue recovering a lot of that lost land and water usage to put them to better use.

    I’d be very interested to see a version of golf that is less ecologically destructive and less water intensive.

  • @Death_Equity@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    11 year ago

    I don’t care for golf and wish golf courses were better used spaces, but the thing about golf that makes it interesting is the meditative practice of being able to swing the club in just the right way to make the ball go where it needs to.

    I like archery and you have the same sort of thing going on there. You have to have your positioning, movements, focus, and smoothness of action to hit the target. You can tell how you failed before the arrow hits the target. Working on fine tuning your actions is enjoyable.

    • @vivadanang@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      21 year ago

      archery

      archery doesn’t carry a racist history and waste giant tracts of land. they can putt-putt or get fucked.

      • @Death_Equity@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        -11 year ago

        It isn’t the same sort of thing though. Yes, you can pick a target and go for that, but having the topography and hazards makes for a different experience.

        Driving ranges also don’t have the same sort of socialization and competition aspect.

        • Flying SquidM
          link
          fedilink
          01 year ago

          I agree with the first thing you said, but there’s no reason why you can’t socialize or compete at a driving range. It would be the same sort of competition as an archery or shooting competition- how accurately can you hit your target? And driving ranges have all the people doing it parallel to each other, so there’s no reason why you can’t talk to the person next to you. Yes, it is not exactly the same as golf, but it’s more environmentally friendly and less of a barrier to people with lower income because you don’t have to pay country club fees.

          • Fwiw golfers talk while they walk/cart around and such, and specifically are mad if anyone talks during their swing, the swing which is “the only thing you do at a driving range,” so talking is a little less accepted there.

  • @Ejh3k@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    01 year ago

    As someone that lives in the second flattest state and is surrounded by corn and soy field, and doesn’t play golf, this doesn’t affect me one bit. Bye.

  • @Touching_Grass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    0
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    The problem is its not worth the fight. Its an issue that’s for sure pushed by fossil fuel industry because how many people you will piss off. It’s devastating but if you want action on this you need to actually ignore it for now and instead get golfers to see it themselves in other ways. Its a good game and its most peoples thing they do to fuck off from lifes bullshit. Coming at people and saying you’ll take that away is something fossil fuel industry would love for people to do

    • @lady_maria@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      -11 year ago

      its most peoples thing they do to fuck off from lifes bullshit.

      No… not most.

      According to the National Golf Foundation, 41.1 million Americans played golf – BOTH on-course and off-course – in 2022.

      This record-setting total includes 25.6 million people who played on a golf course and another 15.5 million who participated exclusively in off-course golf activities at places like driving ranges, indoor golf simulators, or golf entertainment venues like Topgolf and Drive Shack.

      So only about 8%… or 12%, if you include those who participate in “off-course golf activities” alone.

      • @Touching_Grass@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        01 year ago

        Those numbers seem off. Everybody in my entire life I’m probably 1/2 of the people I’ve met are golfers. Every city IVs lived has been able to support multiple golf courses.

        • @lady_maria@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          -11 year ago

          Your anecdotal evidence says a lot more about the kind of people you surround yourself with than anything else. 60% of people in the US are still living paycheck to paycheck; many don’t have the time or the money for even the cheaper entry fees, especially when you consider having to buy/rent clubs.

          Plus… why would an organization like the NGF downplay the number of golfers when their goal is literally to research and promote golfing?

  • Flying SquidM
    link
    fedilink
    01 year ago

    I live in Indiana, so there’s (generally) no shortage of rain. The golf courses in this town still water the entire grass of the course every day. Even if it rained the day before. Even if it’s raining right then and there. There aren’t water shortages here, but what a waste.

    • @_danny@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      01 year ago

      Most courses use man made ponds as both hazards and as retention ponds so they can use that rain water.

      You know what uses three times the amount of water per acre? Corn. And almonds use about ten times more water than corn. And people have only just started caring about lawns, that use two orders of magnitude more water, fertilizer, and land than golf courses.

      Golf courses really aren’t that bad from an ecological point of view when compared acre per acre to other large man made structures. They’re generally pretty small when compared to other large landscaping projects at 30-80 acres. The issue is when a city has like twenty courses just for the purpose of driving up housing prices.

      Would that land be better as a park? Probably, but this is the US, someone would see an unprofitable “empty” plot of land and throw million dollar houses on it.

      • @Rodeo@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        11 year ago

        You know what uses three times the amount of water per acre? Corn. And almonds use about ten times more water than corn.

        And we get food out of that input, unlike a golf course where you get nothing of value.

        And people have only just started caring about lawns, that use two orders of magnitude more water, fertilizer, and land than golf courses.

        Have you seen a golf course before? They’re literally lawns.

        • You get nothing of value from golf. I don’t play either so neither do I, but this very much comes off as “stop liking things I don’t like” rather than something that is actually important.

          • At least in the southwestern US most of them are a moot point. The vast majority of golf courses are being redeveloped because the course went bankrupt over the last decade or so. A few are managing to stick around, but I wouldn’t be surprised if over 90% of the historical courses are gone in the next few years.

        • @_danny@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          01 year ago

          Most of the US corn crop goes to animal feed, so no you don’t get food from it. At least not directly. If you totaled up all of the land used by golf courses, you’d be at .1% of just the amount of land used for animal feed. And about 1% of the land used by home lawns.

          They’re not that bad, there are much worse enemies than golf courses in general. Again, courses that are in the middle of a city that do nothing but increase property value are terrible, but most are perfectly fine and use way less water than you think.